Newbie! Looking for some training advice...

Hi all- I've been poking around this site trying to get an idea of what a good training regimen would be.

So first, some background: I got my roadie last Aug (2010 Madone 5.1 wsd) and I've been riding as often as I can.

I used to swim competitively (competed at NCAA D3 level)- swam the 1000, 1650 etc so I know what its feels like to be working out 18hrs a week in a pool + 3hrs/wk in the gym. (Its one of the reasons why I can't get myself to swim laps anymore... just totally burnt out).

So, since swimming is not an option and I *HATE* running, I've gravitated toward biking.

Now that its spring, I really want to crack down and get back into shape (I've gained some nice padding kudos to post-swim season) and would like to get into some kind of training program instead of willy-nilly picking rides of various distances.

What would be a good starting regimen? Right now I'm doing ~24mi/day (4days/week) with rolling hills. I'd love to work up to routinely riding 40 milers... perhaps maybe a century by the end of summer...

I've also started going to a local shop's rides, but I feel totally out of place- for starters, its all early 30s men who can rip up hills. I feel like I'm a huge handicap for the group (and don't want to be).

Besides, I kinda want to kick some butt... I DID spend 14+ years racing in a pool, I've got quite the competitive spirit...

How about a schedule of 2-3 hour slow riding during the weekend, with a rest day afterwards. Then during the week one 90 minute slow ride and one or two 60 minute more intense rides. Slow is slow and more intense is not full out! Warm up at the beginning of the ride. Don't be afraid to mix it up a little, for instance by doing a few sprints during a slow ride (especially the short ones), or riding with a relatively easy or hard gear for a while.

Listen to your body and don't push yourself if your body doesn't seem to be happy. Training is all about time & effort, long distances are irrelevant for training. 10 miles into a headwind is said to be the equivalent of 20-25 miles with a tailwind..

Monday = walk the bike. just tool around
Tuesday = tempo ride. ride at a comfortable steady pace
Wednesday = steady tempo ride again.
Thursday = intervals. After warm up, go as hard as you can for as long as you can. recover, repeat.
Friday = walk the bike
Saturday&Sunday = ride with the group and do whatever it takes to stay with the group (can be termed inverval/hard workout)

This is the optimum range. If want a day off, the n take one.
If you don't feel like riding interval or hard one day..... then don't.
You are not a motor for your bike. Enjoy yourself.

You are at around 100 miles per week. You can improve greatly with that kind of milage.
You add a longer 40+ group ride on a weekend and you've got yourself a 150 mile week.

Remember to go slow on your slow days and fast/hard on your fast/hard days.

Pay close attention to your resting HR. Each day, after the alarm goes off and you raise your head up off the pillow, take your resting pulse.
Mine is 59 during the season. If it rises by more than 6 or 7 beats, then ease back on your milage.

enjoy.

I have enough words to get me into trouble, but not enough to get me out of trouble.

It takes years to learn how to self-coach. Your quickest route to success is to hire a coach. If you can't really do that, there's also internet coaching at a few different levels, the bottom level being they design you a program and you take it from there. There's also software. pccoach.com has quite a good cycling program that's slightly interactive and does give you a good starting point in understanding how a cycling program is structured. Polar has cycling programs on its website, available for download. You need a recording HRM to make use of any coaching program, human or software, but it's very useful to have one, anyway.